well i had my racquet strung at 40's with BHB7
anything i should be 'warned' about trying it the first time?

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It took me one session to get used to my POG mid strung at 40lbs. I was hitting long, missing volleys etc.

The second time I tried it, I was hooked. My serves had wicked slice, groundies were spinning crazy good and volleys had nice pop.

So takes a bit of an adjustment but IMO it's worth it. I'm not going back - except for trying to figure out how to recapture the magic my Prince Boron had before I strung poly at 50 lbs....but that's another post.

When I went down to the low 40's and 38, I noticed a lot more spring than the 60 to 70#s I had been hitting. It took a few games to get used to it, as it did going down to 30#s. Now that I am there and have learned the characteristics of that tension, I like it a lot!

I really feel like I've discovered a new world! It's just unbelievable.
i just came back playing with BHB7 16 strung at 40.

I will try to restore my experiences as accurate as possible:
First of all, for those who don't like 'butter touch', there's no point in trying low tensions.
I love it! Just as soft as melted butter! The first major thing that really stands out with this tension.
It's as if you slipping into your favorite sweat pants after a whole day with jeans

And now for the differences in terms of the game itself.
i'll probably say again what many said here over the thread including Chris.

the spin is so enhanced it's just ridicolous, almost in every hit. slices and droppers become very easy, this is just crazy.
forhands and backhands have quite a different feel. I do not know how to explain it. Clearly there's a lot more power, but it's still mysteriously controlled. hard strokes end up inside the court most of the times. i didn't feel unsecured at all. it also has a unique feel of pocketing the ball just enough for you to control it. you DON'T lose control and spring balls at the fence.
The ball also gets an unexpected addition of spin in all sorts of directions, and it really killed my partner's game. He had to make last-minute adjustment many times (like Novak at the USOPEN LOL).
simply unbelievable. i really had a different game.
For serves, i don't know yet. I felt a change, but still not any significant improvement in something.
but it's now possible to produce rather fast accurate flatters almost without effort.
and now to the cherry at the top- my returns!
Almost all of my returns somehow remained in the court. all i had to do is put the raquet at the spot and the rest happened by itself. ball returned deep with no effort, sometime with weird spin that made my partner make UE's.
It was much easier to control slice returns and they simply ruined all the serve intimidation my partner had before.
Pure pleasure!
again i'll say that those who like a hard accurate strung stick might even hate this tension. But those who are accustomed to a soft and spoily multi will feel at home.
I'm pretty sure that also my arm and wrist 'enjoy' hitting with less hard impact feel.
i Recommend everyone to try a 30-40 tension with poly at least once.
I sure did not expect such a unique experience.
Of course there are some drawbacks. power shots with some inaccuracies may fly out. But for me it rarely happened. So I'm not sure it's right for those who like to hit with power toughness and accuracy.
But if you manage to get used to low tension and learn how to master it's gentleness, the feeling is just addictive.
The biggest advantage is the easy power, depth, and SPINNNNNN.

I have found the same. I am winning more games and having to use a lot less effort to get the ball back deep, and the exaggerated spin seems to drive most people crazy.

The serve took a little getting used to. My spin serve now moves way more than it did at higher tension. One nice result of the lower tension on serve is that a lot of times it will look like it's going to their backhand (on a righty) and end up being a body serve. Also, I get a lot more pop on a hard flat first serve.

I have found the same. I am winning more games and having to use a lot less effort to get the ball back deep, and the exaggerated spin seems to drive most people crazy.

The serve took a little getting used to. My spin serve now moves way more than it did at higher tension. One nice result of the lower tension on serve is that a lot of times it will look like it's going to their backhand (on a righty) and end up being a body serve. Also, I get a lot more pop on a hard flat first serve.

Glad you are liking it.

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but how the hell did you like the complete opposite feel of stringing at 60??

As I mentioned earlier, I strung my mixed doubles partner's PureDrive 107 at 38#s, and she loved it. She said that it felt very comfortable, and "sounds so different". She adjusted very quickly and has now said she wants to go lower.

I really feel like I've discovered a new world! It's just unbelievable.
i just came back playing with BHB7 16 strung at 40.

I will try to restore my experiences as accurate as possible:
First of all, for those who don't like 'butter touch', there's no point in trying low tensions.
I love it! Just as soft as melted butter! The first major thing that really stands out with this tension.
It's as if you slipping into your favorite sweat pants after a whole day with jeans

And now for the differences in terms of the game itself.
i'll probably say again what many said here over the thread including Chris.

the spin is so enhanced it's just ridicolous, almost in every hit. slices and droppers become very easy, this is just crazy.
forhands and backhands have quite a different feel. I do not know how to explain it. Clearly there's a lot more power, but it's still mysteriously controlled. hard strokes end up inside the court most of the times. i didn't feel unsecured at all. it also has a unique feel of pocketing the ball just enough for you to control it. you DON'T lose control and spring balls at the fence.
The ball also gets an unexpected addition of spin in all sorts of directions, and it really killed my partner's game. He had to make last-minute adjustment many times (like Novak at the USOPEN LOL).
simply unbelievable. i really had a different game.
For serves, i don't know yet. I felt a change, but still not any significant improvement in something.
but it's now possible to produce rather fast accurate flatters almost without effort.
and now to the cherry at the top- my returns!
Almost all of my returns somehow remained in the court. all i had to do is put the raquet at the spot and the rest happened by itself. ball returned deep with no effort, sometime with weird spin that made my partner make UE's.
It was much easier to control slice returns and they simply ruined all the serve intimidation my partner had before.
Pure pleasure!
again i'll say that those who like a hard accurate strung stick might even hate this tension. But those who are accustomed to a soft and spoily multi will feel at home.
I'm pretty sure that also my arm and wrist 'enjoy' hitting with less hard impact feel.
i Recommend everyone to try a 30-40 tension with poly at least once.
I sure did not expect such a unique experience.
Of course there are some drawbacks. power shots with some inaccuracies may fly out. But for me it rarely happened. So I'm not sure it's right for those who like to hit with power toughness and accuracy.
But if you manage to get used to low tension and learn how to master it's gentleness, the feeling is just addictive.
The biggest advantage is the easy power, depth, and SPINNNNNN.

Hope this honeymoon will last very long.

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No honeymoon it's not for everyone but if you like it don't see why go back. I've been here for 6 months. And I mess with other setups but nothing compares. By the way I use to and still like 60+ tension but most setups in the middle lack in someway.

But now are you ready for a surprise ?? What if I tell you that 30 feels and performs even better. No I ain't kidding. What I do is I string at 35-37 and break in setup and stabilizes at 28-30 and there is where it plays the sweetest for me. It will play awesome for a while meaning 10+ hours but I have learned my lesson to cut out around that point. Now I play a stiff racquet and use a stiff poly but it feels like butter.

I was doing another round of demoing today and I had my Aerostorm GT strung with PHT @ 38lbs out. I won my match which is always nice, but I didn't feel comfortable really letting the ball go. Service games were a breeze as I didn't drop serve once due to a really nice second serve action with a ton of pronounced kick and slice, but off the ground I just wasn't happy with the results. I sprayed a ton of backhands long by about 6 inches, and my forehand had to have a really defined low to high action to keep within the lines. Slices were money though, really smooth with a ton of side spin.

Definitely something I'm going to keep testing but I wasn't totally satisfied with my first low tension outing in months!

i think in a way it's almost as cheating.
if i was strict about it i would say it's having an unfair advantage,
because my game is unpredicted and i'm not really the one that make it so..
what do you guys think?

I really feel like I've discovered a new world! It's just unbelievable.
i just came back playing with BHB7 16 strung at 40.

I will try to restore my experiences as accurate as possible:
First of all, for those who don't like 'butter touch', there's no point in trying low tensions.
I love it! Just as soft as melted butter!..
Hope this honeymoon will last very long.

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Please come back soon when poly dies on you and stringbed turns into a memory foam mattress

Wow, I may just have to jump on the bandwagon myself. I have a couple racquets to string this weekend, and a reel of BHB7. Should I take the plunge?

My biggest fear is hitting the ball too long. When I string syn gut, I always have to string around 62-64 lbs just to keep it in. Anything less and that ball rockets away, even with my low powered "players" racquets.

Do any of you low tension ppl experience any trouble with this? Do you find that you have to slow your racquet speed down at all when hitting ground strokes?

I like to swing the racquet fast, and I'm afraid they'll sail long all day long.

Wow, I may just have to jump on the bandwagon myself. I have a couple racquets to string this weekend, and a reel of BHB7. Should I take the plunge?

My biggest fear is hitting the ball too long. When I string syn gut, I always have to string around 62-64 lbs just to keep it in. Anything less and that ball rockets away, even with my low powered "players" racquets.

Do any of you low tension ppl experience any trouble with this? Do you find that you have to slow your racquet speed down at all when hitting ground strokes?

I like to swing the racquet fast, and I'm afraid they'll sail long all day long.

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don't make a big deal. string one racquet low and give it a go.
worst case you wasted a bit of string.
i can only say that the pocketing is so good that you have the time to put enough control to retain the ball in court even in fast shots.
however you CAN inject far less power to get deep.
it's either you'll like it or not. very simple.

Wow, I may just have to jump on the bandwagon myself. I have a couple racquets to string this weekend, and a reel of BHB7. Should I take the plunge?

My biggest fear is hitting the ball too long. When I string syn gut, I always have to string around 62-64 lbs just to keep it in. Anything less and that ball rockets away, even with my low powered "players" racquets.

Do any of you low tension ppl experience any trouble with this? Do you find that you have to slow your racquet speed down at all when hitting ground strokes?

I like to swing the racquet fast, and I'm afraid they'll sail long all day long.

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If you read all the way through this thread from the beginning, you will see that the excitement that many felt when they first tried low tension eventually wore off and they went back to their original setup. I have tried everything from 50 on down to 25 lbs. I love the feel and comfort at very low tensions. I find that it plays amazing when I can really concentrate on brushing the ball. When I'm not careful (or really pushed) the ball has a tendency to sail long.

I'm happy around 45 lbs or higher now. After a few months of this I usually will try something lower and am then reminded why I always go back.

It's always a good idea to try it for yourself to see if you like it. You never know, it may fit your playing style.

played again today and now have a little more down to earth observations..
as said above, in order to fully use the low tension advantage you gotta be very relaxed and concentrated.
every attempt to 'power' your strokes has to be... how do i say.. delicate
while higher tensions can "behave" well with more various amount of speed and power, low tensions are more "picky".
it's like working with a more soft and refined tool. you can be very precise if you manage to have the ability to play relaxed and in high focus.
whether this will work in a long term? can't say ATM.

one more strange thing... from all the options, it's actually my SLICE serve that became less intimidating! wtf?

played again today and now have a little more down to earth observations..
as said above, in order to fully use the low tension advantage you gotta be very relaxed and concentrated.
every attempt to 'power' your strokes has to be... how do i say.. delicate
while higher tensions can "behave" well with more various amount of speed and power, low tensions are more "picky".
it's like working with a more soft and refined tool. you can be very precise if you manage to have the ability to play relaxed and in high focus.
whether this will work in a long term? can't say ATM.

one more strange thing... from all the options, it's actually my SLICE serve that became less intimidating! wtf?

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That is a good observation. I think I could get used to it but would have to ride out some inconsistency for a while. I can see the advantages but it is hard to override years of hitting at 55-60 lbs.

I have lost a little speed on my first serve, bit nowhere near the 20% you mention. Maybe 5mph at most. But tonight I clocked several aces that seemed just as fast as when I was using higher tensions.

I have found that my placement is much better with the extreme low tension. Maybe because I don't have to use quite as much power to get the same (or almost the same) speed results.

I know it has really improved my second serve. A lot more kick or slice.

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I have to agree my 2nd serve is better by far. I think perhaps I need to keep serving with it and I'll adjust. I can get a wicked screwball effect on my first serve sometimes now which I wasn't before.

One thing to note is I'm not quite at the low tensions yet. My POG mid is 39-40 lbs and my Boron OS is 50 lbs. Each is 20 lbs below what I would usually use.

It's possible that at the 30 lbs setting for the POG mid and say 35lbs for the Boron OS things could improve markedly

For Christmas, I got my girlfriend a new racquet, and strung it with Technifibre Red Code 18 at 30 pounds.

She got to use it for one lesson, and then we played a few sets. She was a little hesitant at first because it "sounded so different" (where have I heard that before?). We warmed up for about 20 minutes. She settled in and started hitting some very nice shots.

Once we actually started playing, I was amazed at the amount of topspin she was getting on her ground strokes. I can now see why people are having problems with some of my shots. The ball would hit the court and seemed to pick up speed after the bounce. She even hit a few that were going so good, they stuck in the fence at the back of the court!

Her serves were popping pretty good, too. Her only complaint was high balls at the net. She was having a little trouble with those. I explained how I changed my shots at net with the low tension and she was good to go.

She said she was actually surprised at how nice it felt, and at how few of her shots went long.

I guess I have created another convert to the extreme low tension club.

If you read all the way through this thread from the beginning, you will see that the excitement that many felt when they first tried low tension eventually wore off and they went back to their original setup. I have tried everything from 50 on down to 25 lbs. I love the feel and comfort at very low tensions. I find that it plays amazing when I can really concentrate on brushing the ball. When I'm not careful (or really pushed) the ball has a tendency to sail long.

I'm happy around 45 lbs or higher now. After a few months of this I usually will try something lower and am then reminded why I always go back.

It's always a good idea to try it for yourself to see if you like it. You never know, it may fit your playing style.

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For me it's the opposite every time I think I can get more out of my old higher tension setup I keep coming back. Regardless I can still play with the higher tension but there is so much less feel and less spin, feels stiff, harder on defensive shots etc etc. the one thing I can say is that the low tension will enhance most effects that includes enhancing poor strokes. If your strokes are sloppy and inconsistent then that's what you get from the low tension.

I string for many and a player below say a 4.0 level of stokes I have seen more negatives than positives from low tension and usually don't recommend it if asked.

For grins tonight, I started off with my one racquet that is still strung at 50/48. I didn't like it at all. My returns were sailing, as were some of my volleys that would have been clean winners with the 30# setup. The pop was gone from my serve (especially second serves), and I double faulted several times.

After 5 games (should have done it sooner), I went back to my favorite (syn-gut at 30#). All of a sudden, I felt comfortable again. My serves had more pop, and were moving good. I was able to hit the ball with pace, with most of them landing well to the back of the court with lots of top-spin. It was like coming home.

Maybe it's a mental thing, but I think I'll stay with the extreme low tension.

For grins tonight, I started off with my one racquet that is still strung at 50/48. I didn't like it at all. My returns were sailing, as were some of my volleys that would have been clean winners with the 30# setup. The pop was gone from my serve (especially second serves), and I double faulted several times.

After 5 games (should have done it sooner), I went back to my favorite (syn-gut at 30#). All of a sudden, I felt comfortable again. My serves had more pop, and were moving good. I was able to hit the ball with pace, with most of them landing well to the back of the court with lots of top-spin. It was like coming home.

Maybe it's a mental thing, but I think I'll stay with the extreme low tension.

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Wow your using Syn gut. I have not tried that yet. I imagine you used poly at 30 also why did you go with the syn gut rather ? Now I gotta go lace up a stick because of you. I was thinking a stiff multi perhaps XONE biphase rather than such a soft syn gut ?? I have not read this thread in a while but have you tried to hybrid at the low tension ?

For those that call it a fad. I have about six 4.5-5.0 level players and a couple of nationally ranked juniors playing with low 30s and not interested in going back.

I will reiterate if your strokes are sloppy then sooner or later you shall return to the higher tension because the lower tension is not forgiving to open faced flailing at the ball which is very common among players with not fundamentally sound strokes. Please this is NOT a slight on everybody just a scientific observation, I mean that before I get attacked.

Yes, syn-gut. When I strung my first low tension, I only had syn-gut and co-poly lying around. I decided to start with the syn-gut because that's what I had the most of. After trying an all poly and poly/syn-gut hybrid, I like the all syn-gut the best.

Both of the other setups are nice, but I keep going back to the syn-gut. The only down side to it is that the strings move a lot. Not the case with the poly and hybrid.

Don't know if I mentioned it before but I was playing my late friend's Prince CTS Graduate with Bab Syn Gut.

It played great, pocketed wonderfully and was an all round good racquet! I could probably still play it but I moved on to POGs and now a Donnay X-Platinum 94 which is like an even better playing POG at 18 x 20.

I tested the Graduate on RacquetTune and it registered at 33 lbs - it's never been restrung in all those years.

So SynGut at low tensions can play great - just beware it can launch if you don't use spinny strokes!

Played tonight in the cold with my 30# syn-gut. 36 at the start of the match and 32 when we finished. My tension app says I am now actually at 28#, and my partner's PureDrive 107 has settled in at 35#.

It seemed to me that the cold didn't affect the strings as much at the lower tension as what I experienced last year when I was in the 50's and 60's. Volleys were still nice and crisp, while the other team was having issues. I was also getting a lot of pop on my serve.

Been playing with the low tensions for almost a year pretty much pain free except for the last couple of weeks been having wrist soreness and some symptoms of TE. Is it the low tension possibly ? I don't play string longer than 8-10 hrs already learned that lesson. Might just be me and poor warm ups and flexibility maintenance, any thoughts ?